What goes in the blank?

Essential

That’s the attitude of most Aussies at the moment. In the last Australian Census over 30% of people indicated they follow no religion at all. And of the 50% who identify with a Christian denomination less than one in five goes to church with any regularity. That’s less than 10% of the whole population.

Who needs Jesus? Not many, so it seems.

Jesus seems irrelevant to most people. After all, there are far more important things that take up our time and energy: work, eat, sleep, family, paying bills… Billions of people do these things every day without any thought of Jesus. We get up, have a busy day, go to bed, wake up and do it all over again…. Who needs Jesus?

I get it. I used to think that way myself. Life is busy and hard enough without putting extra effort into some ancient religion. We have science & technology now – we don’t need to rely on some ignorant superstition.

So it seems.

Then I discovered that Jesus had far more to do with my life than I realised. I discovered Jesus was the only reason that you and I and everyone else exists in the first place. Here’s an insightful quote from the Bible about Jesus:

For by him [Jesus] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:16-17, NIV)

Jesus made everything. He’s responsible for everything we enjoy – comfy bed, TV, good food, chocolate, whatever. He made us too. Without him we’d have nothing. Not only that but “in him all things hold together.” He’s the reason our molecules don’t fly apart. He’s the reason gravity keeps us from floating away. He’s responsible for our next heartbeat, our next breath. He holds our life in his hands, every moment, every day.

If that’s not reason enough to take him seriously, I discovered Jesus does far more than keep our heart beating. He offers us a crucial thing that’s missing in our lives – meaning & purpose & value. Here is Jesus’ own words about himself:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10, NIV)

Without Jesus, we’re just a bunch of random chemicals, clumped together for a short time. The universe doesn’t care whether we exist or not. There is no right or wrong, things just are. Without Jesus, all our efforts as human beings come to nothing.

But Jesus freely offers “life to the full.” As we come to Jesus we realise every human is designed & made to live for him. As we come to Jesus we realise every human is precious to God – he would even die for us on the cross. As we come to Jesus he teaches us how live the way he designed life. In Jesus, we have a relationship with God that starts now but goes beyond death for eternity.

Life with meaning and purpose and value. Life that goes on forever. Life to the full.